Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (movie)

The comedian Joan Rivers, who died Thursday at 81, leaves an impression larger and louder than life, and the sense of a sensibility caustic toward both the world and herself. She played a character, of course, as comics do, and in later years was easy to caricature. She was smarter and more attractive than her comedy suggested (even as its quality made that obvious). But in a 2011 episode from his FX series "Louie," titled simply "Joan," admirer Louis C.K. gave her an opportunity to play a different version of herself, one that let her intelligence and heart come to the fore. (A portion of it is here, and above.) Intimate in more ways than one, it's a scene to...

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The comedian Joan Rivers, who died Thursday at 81, leaves an impression larger and louder than life, and the sense of a sensibility caustic toward both the world and herself. She played a character, of course, as comics do, and in later years was easy...

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